“Sons of Anarchy” star and almost “Fifty Shades of Grey” star Charlie Hunnam has revealed that it was “a nervous breakdown” that really led to his departure from the upcoming adaptation of the best-selling E.L. James novel.
The actor, who would have played Christian Grey opposite Dakota Johnson’s Anastasia Steele, told Moviefone that the Focus Features drama would have been one project too many, since he already committed to shooting Guillermo del Toro‘s “Crimson Peak” during his hiatus from FX series “Sons.”
See video: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Alternate Trailer: The Charlie Hunnam Cut
“I was going to finish ‘Sons’ at like 11 p.m. Friday night, get on the plane Saturday morning to Vancouver for ‘Fifty,’ missing the whole first week of rehearsal and start shooting Monday morning,” Hunnam explained. “And I was going to shoot that film, wrap that on the Wednesday and the following Monday I was going to start shooting ‘Crimson Peak’ in Toronto. I just had like … frankly, something of a nervous breakdown.”
The passionate response from fans and the attention the media was giving “Fifty Shades” also contributed to his decision to back out of the role just weeks after being cast.
“To fail on such a grand scale — because ‘Fifty’s going to be massive, it’s going to be huge. I really didn’t want to fail on such a grand scale and I just couldn’t transition from Jax Teller to Christian Grey in 48 hours,” Hunnam said. “I bit off more than I could chew and it was painful. I loved the character and I wanted to do it.”
Hunnam said in July that the experience was “pretty heartbreaking,” because he was genuinely excited to work with director Sam Taylor-Johnson, and reiterated the same disappointment about the “shit situation” in his latest commentary on his departure.
“I was really, really, sorry to do it,” Hunnam said. “It was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations.”
Source: thewrap.com
Category: Film
Pacific Rim 2 is now shaping up as Charlie Hunnam confirms his reappearance in this sequel as Raliegh! Guillermo del Toro, the director, even gave a glimpse of this character as he shared:
“We are taking the characters into a completely different journey this time because Raleigh (played by Hunnam) for me solved his problem the minute he was able to go full circle and save Mako by sacrificing himself, which is what he couldn’t do with his brother. He’s not on that journey anymore, he’s on a new journey,” (via IB Times).
The hype lives on as del Toro also revealed his favorite character in the film, Mako Morin played by Rinko Kikuchi:
“To me, my favorite character in many ways is Mako Mori in “Pacific Rim,”“I just love it. It’s an experience that you can’t get any other way.”
The next Pacific Rim will allegedly have a different feel this time. According to the director Guillermo Del Toro, they are currently formulating ideas that are not the usual route. The film will allegedly highlight different parts of the world to give it a different feel! He even told The Wall Street Journal:
“All of this happens prior to the first movie, and it gives you a little more depth into the background of certain characters that will appear in the second movie. So by the time the second movie comes out, you will have probably one year of the animation airing, and you will have three years of the comic book series ongoing.”
“The series tackles the stories that happened to pilots working in the Shatterdome, but also cadets learning how to become pilots,” he shared.“It was hard to create a world that did not come from a comic book that had its own mythology, so we had to sacrifice many aspects to be able to cram everything in the first movie. Namely, for example, ‘the Drift,’ which was an interesting concept,” director Guillermo Del Toro told The Wall Street Journal.
Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull said earlier this year that he considers Pacific Rim a financial success, especially considering the fact that it was an original IP. There were further good signs this summer when del Toro revealed that he was working with Zak Penn on writing a sequel, and now Universal has officially announced that Pacific Rim 2 will arrive in 3D and IMAX theaters on April 7th, 2017.
“The characters I love will return. Raleigh, Mako, Newt, Gottlieb and who knows, maybe even Hannibal Chau – but we are taking them into a fresh territory that will display amazing sights and battles. The first film set the stage and now we’re ready to have a blast.”
The co-writer and director didn’t give away any further details about the plot of Pacific Rim 2 in his video announcement but he did sound very pleased by the deal, saying, “We’re all very happy to be bringing you more Kaijus and more Jaegers kicking each other’s butt.”
I’m very excited to hear this news personally and hope that it actually becomes a reality!
Buzzfeed recently chatted with director Guillermo del Toro about his upcoming television series The Strain, which will premiere on FX. During their discussion Buzzfeed asked him about the possibility of another Pacific Rim film. “I’m working very, very hard with Zak Penn (“The Incredible Hulk”),” he told Buzzfeed. “We’ve been working for a few months now in secret. We found a way to twist it around. Travis Beacham [co-writer of the first film, now working on Fox’s Hieroglyph] was involved in the storyline and now I’m writing with Zak because Travis has become a TV mogul.”
At this time, Legendary Pictures has not given Pacific Rim 2 the greenlight. In March, Legendary CEO Thomas Tull told Collider, “It did north of 400 million dollars globally and both the home video sales and the merchandise have way over-indexed, so it seems like fans really loved the world. So we’re going to sit down with Guillermo and as long as we think it’s authentic and there’s something to say, we’re certainly open to it.”
As for the script, del Toro revealed that Jaeger pilots, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), are involved in the storyline. Clearly, that means it is a sequel and not a prequel as many had speculated it might be. “Some people were wondering if we were going to do the prequel. I was never interested in doing that first wave of invasion,” del Toro said. He concluded with this spirited message about Pacific Rim 2: “I’m going for very new, very crazy ideas on the second one, which are very different from the first one — but you will get really great spectacle.”
Thanks to Gabby, I have added some on set images of Charlie from Crimson Peak which is currently filming.
Crimson Peak (2014) > On Set > 04/17/14 – Filming in Toronto, Canada
Crimson Peak (2014) > On Set > 04/22/14 – Filming in Toronto, Canada
